


The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

by Ellienerd14



Category: Class (TV 2016), Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Charlie Centric, Light Angst, M/M, Over usage of personal deixis, Perks of being a wallflower references, identity crisis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2019-02-12 18:42:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12965955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellienerd14/pseuds/Ellienerd14
Summary: The origin story of Charlie's name no one asked for.'I hope you understandLove always,Charlie'





	The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

The days after the Doctor rescues them are a strange blur of wandering around the TARDIS and trying to wrap his head around Rhodia being gone forever.

That’s the hardest part of it all - accepting the fact that the place that had been his home for so long was gone, all of it’s culture and history and people shattered in a single day.

Just two survivors and only by luck of the Doctor finding them. A man of legend and his companion who had begged to save them, _even if it’s just two people, please._

(Her name is Donna Noble and the prince never sees her again.)

He has never felt so alone. 

That‘s the part that keeps him awake at night, because there’s no way to close his eyes without thinking about everyone leating him behind.

It doesn’t help that the Cabinet of Souls sits in the corner of his room. It’s a heavy duty for a teenager but he was never just a teeanger; he was a prince. Just one without a people.

One who would always be left without a people. 

Andra’ath still refuses to talk about it. She doesn’t like it when he uses her name and hides away in her own room, angry and brooding. Nothing has changed for her, he thinks pitifully, still stormy and furious. For a Quill, her Rhodia must have been long gone, even if it was there fault. 

The TARDIS was an endless maze, which meant it was full of distractions, if he looked for them. Although the young prince could probably be able to find art supplies and indulge in his only hobby, he was scared if he put a paintbrush to paper, all the memories he was trying so hard to not think about would come to life on canvas. He already saw the blood spilled in his head. Seeing it in front of him would be too much. 

The Doctor finds him curled up by the console room entrance, watching galaxies swirl on the screens after another long night. 

“Sleep troubles?” the Doctor asks, in a gentle tone.

He simply nods.

(There was so much he wanted to say to the Doctor, the hero of his favourite stories once, but now he can‘t find the words, any words.) 

The Doctor offers a hand. “There’s a great cure for that.”

The prince takes it, feeling a little dazed. The Doctor was a man of legend and despite the tragedy the prince had noticed his general attractiveness. (The thought makes him blush but it’s lost on his lilac skin.) There was no teenager on Rhodia who wouldn’t flush with a little attention from the famous hero. 

The room the Doctor leads him too is a familiar one - every planet has a library. Rhodia was full of books - it was a learned society. These books, however, are not familiar. Fitting, for a Time Lord to have stories from every corner of the universe. 

“I think I have the perfect one for you,” the Doctor promises. The book the young prince is given is blue with the word swirling in a language he didn’t understand a few days ago. “Remember,” he says, “You’re not alone.”

He hugs the book close and retreats to his home with it held protectively against his chest. It’s only when he gets to his room that he opens it.

_‘Dear Friend,’_

Books that he read on Rhodia were about politics and history. Things a prince must know. It’s a little jarring at first to read about another planet and a pretend person but the book is beautifully poetic. 

_‘I think you of all people are alive and appreciate what that means.’_

He reads the whole book in one night. It’s beautiful and safe and he could relate to suffering and feeling of being alone and being a wallflower long before Rhodia turned to darkness.

Weeks later the Doctor tells them they are going to Earth. Somewhere safe. It takes a lot of courage to step into the machine that will change his appearance - to look human (or to look like a Time Lord, he prefers to think). He looks in the mirror and an unfamiliar pair of blue eyes look back at him.

He feels more lost than ever.

“You’ll need new names,” the Doctor instructs them.

“Quill.” 

“That’s it?”

She doesn’t reply and walks away, fists clenched aggressively. 

“What about you?”

He thinks for a minute and then looks at the familiar blue cover. New blue eyes. Blue book.

“I like ‘ _Charlie_ ’.”

“Charlie Smith,” the Doctor says. “What a perfectly human name.”

 _Charlie_. He likes it. And book Charlie, pretend-Charlie loved a song by _The Smiths._ (sing me to sleep, sing me to sleep). 

When they come to Earth, it’s not like the book. The technology is twenty years ahead and no one listens to the music he researched anymore.

It’s lonely once again, until Charlie meets April who is the definition of a wallflower and smiles at him like they’ve been friends for years. 

And then he meets Matteusz and when he kisses Charlie on the doorstep of his house before prom, all he can think about is the quotation about feeling infinitive.

The prom does not go well but Matteusz never stops kissing him or running with him and Charlie holds onto the feeling of being infinitive.

It’s only after Matteusz gets kicked out of his own home that they discuss the book.

“We accept the love we think we deserve,” he quotes. 

“And I deserve you?”

Charlie isn’t sure that Matteusz does deserve him. But they’re both a little broken and they need each other. 

Maybe it’s selfish, but he doesn’t want to feel infinite with any one else.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.” Matteusz kissed the top of his head affectionately. _“My Charlie.”_

That’s when Charlie realised how perfect his new name was.

**Author's Note:**

> Angst alert. 
> 
> I know most of us assumed Charlie's name was based off the royal family but I personally love the idea of him picking a new name from a book. Plus the idea of reading 'perks of being a wallflower' for the first time and totally relating to Charlie's mental struggles and starting school made me emotional. 
> 
> Let me know what you thought!


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